Best friends don't say goodbye
by DarlingDearestDeadForever
Summary: He turns back to his teammate, and realises - "Fuck damn it Karin, stop blushing! I could tolerate it with Sasuke but not some bastard you've practically just met compared to me!"


Pairing(s): Suika. Hints of Sasukarin, Narusasu, and maybe Narukarin if you read looking out for it

Setting: slightly AU, a year or so after Karin is taken to Konoha as prisoner.

**flashback**

* * *

She's been there a year (or approximately, she can't really tell above the daze of the drugs) months when one day _he_ gets thrown into the cell right beside hers.

To be fair, she spends more time in those underground interrogation chambers, or in the Hokage's office whenever Naruto (her _cousin_) decides to argue with Tsunade (should _she_ call her baa-chan too?) to let his only surviving family member out.

Of course it never works. She is 1/4 accountable for all the crimes Taka has committed and she carries this small bit of responsibility with pride. The sneers and cowers that she gets from the residents of Konoha mean that she did her job well.

It makes her feel justified, justified to hate Sasuke and everything related to him with all that remains of her charred heart for betraying her.

So when she's suddenly slapped in the face with the prospect of being next-door-neighbours with _him_ for a life-term imprisonment, she's _justifiably_ angry.

She stands up before the ANBU guards can leave and hollers, "I am _not_ staying here if he's with me!"

They turn back to her, wordlessly. She growls.

"Tell Ibiki I'd rather have another round of his interrogations any day!"

The guard on the left chuckles lowly before both guards walk out and it takes all of her remaining resolve not to cry. She's stuck.

"I'm not that bad, am I?"

She turns heatedly to her new 'companion', infuriated at his teasing lilt.

"Burn and wither up, fish!"

Suigetsu laughs openly, sitting down on the ground, one hand gripping one of the iron bars that separated them.

"That's new," he muses, looking her up and down before he motions her to sit back down.

She huffs but grudgingly lowers herself to the ground.

There's a (comfortable, it _must_ be the drugs) silence between them and she can see him settle into it, leaning his head on the wall behind him and closing his eyes, while humming some song (a lullaby, where did he hear _that_?).

She grits her teeth, it hasn't been 5 minutes and she's already up to the brim with his bullshit.

"Why are you here?" She spits.

He doesn't bother to look at her or even open his eyes when he says, "Isn't it obvious? I got caught trespassing their borders."

"Exactly, fishbreath, why?"

"What do you mean why? I trespassed, reason enough for them to put me in prison."

Before she knew it, she's reaching up and covering the hand he still had on the iron bar with her own.

That woke him up. At her touch, his gaze snapping to her immediately.

"Don't fuck with me Suigetsu, you were safe in Kiri! And what about Juugo? How could you leave him alone -"

"He's not. He stayed behind in the forest," he cuts in swiftly and so quickly that she's stunned into silence for a while before she can digest what he said.

"What? What's wrong with you? They're never gonna let you go now! And when they find Juugo after he starts getting worried that you haven't come back -" She starts ranting angrily, her grip on his hand tightening until she was sure that his skin was fusing with the iron below it.

"Then he would go back without us, " he interrupted once again in irritation, knowing the redhead crushing his hand wasn't really listening.

"You should have told him to go back without…" She rambles on, "wait, what? _Us_?" She stops abruptly.

They stare at each other until she realises that in the heat of their (okay only she was arguing) fight, their faces had come up right to each other, only separated by the bars in between them.

She feels heat creep up into her cheeks and she sees him notice, his eyes lowering to her cheeks before meeting up with her eyes again. His lips are pressed tightly together and he looks almost pale (like the foam at the bottom of a waterfall, in a weird but fitting sort of way).

Only then does she remember her crushing grip on his hand and she (actually) gasps, and lets his hand go like it suddenly caught on fire and started to pull back.

But his arm quickly turns into water and reaches into her cell, catching her wrist back.

His eyes have never left her.

"You're coming back with us, Karin. Are you honestly going to bear with the daily shit they put you through?" He asks levelly.

"W-What, I can handle myself, waterbrain!" Karin barked.

"Oh yeah?" Suigetsu asked back hotly before tugging her arm and turning it over. "The drugs they're pumping in to your system working like a charm for you?" He mocked.

She looks down at the yellowish-grey bruise the size of a fist colouring the soft crook of her elbow, and then back at him, speechless.

"You're out of it for days at a time, those _fucktards_ don't even bother treating you for any of the injuries they inflict on you during your nice little 'chat sessions' because they've got you high on Kami knows what, and you're telling me that you're _fine_?" He roars at her.

"I- I"

"You what, Karin? You _what_? You thought you'd kill two birds with one stone? Kill the pain of Sasuke's betrayal and –"

_"Don't you dare-"_

_"Kill yourself at the same time?"_

She's about to spew a thousand curses at him when the door of their isolated prison cells slammed open once again for the second time that day, but instead of ANBU guards coming through the door, it was Naruto and Sakura.

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto demanded, his glare fixed at Suigetsu before walking up towards his cell.

"Let go of her!" Naruto growled fiercely.

Sakura, who had recognized Suigetsu, tried to calm her teammate, "Naruto, I don't think he's trying to hurt…" she turns to Karin, obviously realising the futility in calming Naruto. "We heard shouting and he got worried, I'm sorry Karin-san but he's very attached to you, as you can imagine."

Suigetsu ignored Sakura's remark and scoffed. He turned to the angry blond, "Who's asking?"

Karin's eyes widened before slapping herself on the forehead, sighing in aggravation.

Naruto glowered, "Naruto Uzumaki, now back off Karin!"

"Eh? So you're her cousin?" Suigetsu murmured, his anger turning into amusement. "What if I don't want to? What are you gonna do about it? I'm already in jail, teme."

Sakura and Karin glared at the silver-haired boy. "You're not making this any easier," Karin hissed, trying to pry her arm away from his vice-like grip.

But Suigetsu would have not of that, only further tightening his hold on her. "Not making this easy? Karin, seriously? Are you saying that this is difficult?" He turns back to her in complete outrage, ignoring the two Konoha nin in the room.

"What's difficult is knowing you're being tortured in some hellhole below this town night after night while every other person is sleeping soundly not knowing a thing! Even more difficult than that is the fact that neither Juugo nor I could do a damn thing to stop it because we were only halfway to this damned village!" Suigetsu hollered at her, much to Karin's shock.

"But what's _fucking_ difficult is that you _actually_ believe you're happy here despite all the shit they put you through, when you _know_ could be happier with me in Kiri!" He bellows at her, now gripping both her arms and pulling her closer to him.

Karin looked at Suigetsu with wide eyes, she had never seen him so angry. And what he said, what did he mean she _knew_? And _with him_?

Suigetsu growled at her silence (now she chooses to shut up?). "I get it that his chakra is warm and pretty and feels like a bucket of sunshine okay?" he spits distastefully while eyeing her cousin, who was gobsmacked.

He turns back to his teammate, and realises - "Fuck damn it Karin, _stop blushing_! I could tolerate it with Sasuke but not some bastard you've practically just met compared to me!"

Karin only blushes even more, looking terrified at Naruto and Sakura who were both thoroughly confused.

"If you want a family, then what the fuck am I?"

Karin froze, her breaths suddenly becoming shallow as she hears his voice (tender, so suddenly, what the hell is he doing?) and feels his fingers on her jaw, turning her gaze back at him.

"I've been with you longer than anybody else, even Sasuke-teme, and just in case you didn't notice, I've never tried to kill you, and I've never _slept at night knowing my own cousin was being tortured 10 feet under me_ ," Suigetsu said pointedly while staring at Naruto.

Naruto's confused face contorted into one of disbelief and pain. "I- I don't," he turned helplessly to Karin. "Nee-chan?"

Karin's heart broke, tears filling her eyes.

"Karin, you better not have been lying to us..." Sakura trailed off, voice low and eyes squared on her bruise.

"I-I'm a prisoner of war, Sakura. And on top of that, I've been affiliated to Orochimaru and Sasuke. You can't possibly believe I was going to be let off-"

"BAA-CHAN!" Naruto roared as he strode purposely out the prison, anger emanating from him.

Sakura called after her teammate, worry etched over her face before turning back to Karin with a frightened look on her face.

Karin nodded. "Go, he needs you now. Make sure my cousin doesn't do anything stupid okay?" She chuckled lightly before quieting down, "He's my only family."

Sakura nodded before running out, calling after Naruto.

She almost forgot about Suigetsu if not for his hands suddenly leaving her side. She turned back to him, surprised, until she saw the look of sheer rage on his face.

He looked at her sneeringly, "_Bitch._"

Karin growled (Oh so we're back to normal now, are we? Fine! Fucking bastard really fooled me).

"And I'm your pet fish?"

Karin did a double take (what pet?), '"_What?_"

Suigetsu frowned, "I'm your family too Karin! It was just the two of us with Orochimaru before Sasuke-teme came in and you became his slut!"

"I'm not a slut, you bastard!" She lashed out.

"Oh? Could have fooled me, really!" Suigetsu bickered back, turning his back on her.

Karin sighed, she suddenly felt tired, and sat down once again. Running a hand through her hair, she replied wearily, "I'm only going to ask you once more Suigetsu, why are you here?"

Suigetsu turned back to her, eyes blazing. "Are you fucking with me? After all _that_ and it still hasn't entered your thick skull? I came to rescue you, you annoying bitch!"

Karin looked up at him in surprise, much to his ire.

"If you tell me that you're waiting for Sasuke to come and take you on a bleeding white horse and save you, so help me Karin, I _will_ -"

"Why?"

Suigetsu paused, "What?"

Karin's eyes narrowed at him, "I asked why. Why would you risk your freedom and Juugo's freedom and leave Kiri - a sanctuary you've wasted by the way - and come after 'an annoying bitch' like me?"

Suigetsu winched as she quoted him (this is not going at all the way it should have) and collapsed to the ground, deciding to sit facing the infuriating woman across himself.

He stared at her until it unnerved her.

"Answer my question, _flippers_."

Suigetsu smirked, "You're so stupid."

"What did you call me, you oversized fish out of - "

"I risk my freedom along with my bestfriend's, I leave the only place on earth I can survive in and head straight for the one place on earth I'd most definitely _die_ in, and I try rescuing you which required getting myself imprisoned, and you don't understand _why_?" Suigetsu stated plainly, regarding her with a small smile on his face.

Karin stared at him again, inwardly cursing herself for having nothing to say once again.

"Sasuke isn't going to come."

Karin flinched.

"He doesn't care about you Karin, he threw you away like you were a rag doll," he murmured, looking at her dead straight in the eye, "Yet I'm here trying to retrieve that rag doll like it's my life's worth so why, _why_ can't you figure out, until now, _how much_ I love you?"

The bitterness and desperation in his voice doesn't escape her notice, and the knowledge that she (out of all people) has made him like this makes her chest tighten horribly, and her cheeks blossom red quite spectacularly.

She opts not to say anything and observes him. Getting the feeling that she wasn't going to acknowledge his _goddamn confession_ anytime soon, he sighs in frustration and takes a glance at the small window at the top of his cell.

He stands up, "It's getting late."

She panics.

"There's no way now unless...by tomorrow morning everyone would know I'm here..." he trails off, mostly thinking aloud to himself, pacing the confines of his cell. He stops and looks at her over his shoulder, "And since you're so attached to your 'family' here..."

"I told Juugo to go ahead if I'm not back once the sun sets too, there's only an hour left so right now would be -"

She jumps up, "You're leaving?" she demands.

He arches an eye at her, "If I can't convince you now, all I have to do is try again. But staying here would translate in us both being stuck here forever."

She looks at him helplessly, unable to describe the torrent of conflicting emotions bubbling in her. She looks down in anger, biting her lip (figures everything he does would just aggravate me to death).

She too looks up at the window and clearly sees the darkening sky outside. "Damn it" she muttered. She suddenly feels the rush, the urgency of time even though she has nowhere to go so before she can help it, the words come tumbling out her mouth.

"B-b-but you love me," she sputtered.

He looks at her in surprise before he notices her digging the front of her left foot into the ground, her tense shoulders, and the deepening red stain on her cheeks.

Suddenly he's right behind her, his lips grazing her ear and his chest pressed against her back.

"W-what the hell?!" She shrieks.

He chuckles and snakes an arm around her bare stomach, his breath fanning her neck.

"W-wait! Y-you mean you could've done that the whole time you make this big fuss about escaping -"

Karin jumps slightly as Suigetsu gently kisses the curve of her neck.

She pants, in a daze incomparable to what the morphine they give does to her. As she feels his lip descend, she struggles in his grasp, trying to turn around and smack his face and scream at him but then he starts kissing her shoulder, caressing her skin so lightly that it drives her crazy.

"Suigetsu!" She gasps breathily as she feels his tongue draw a line along her collarbone.

Then as suddenly as he started, he stopped, his ragged breathing and the feeling of his heaving chest the only proof that she affected him just as much as he affected her.

"It's gonna take a while, Karin," his voice is rough as he loosens his grip on her and turns her to face himself.

"I get it," he continues as he puts his hands on her shoulders.

"But we're young, and we have forever, and if you want more than that, I'll give you that too."

Her heart is ramming against her ribs and it hurts, a memory she hasn't remembered in a long time appears in the back of her mind.

**"We're gonna die here, aren't we?" She asks out loud although they were the only ones in Lab 1.**

**The boy besides her reaches for her hand and entwines his fingers with hers. She blushes, and screams at him to let her hand go in fluster.**

**He just gives her one of his signature toothy grins and holds up their intertwined hands up to the fluorescent lighting above them.**

**"Don't be scared Karin, I'll make sure you live! I'll stay with you forever to make sure if I have to!"**

"But I have to go now," Suigetsu says and at this, she snaps out of her reverie.

Sensing her worry he cuts in, "I'll be back. Definitely. It's obvious now that you can't leave just yet, not with you find out you have a living relative. And I'm pretty sure he's arguing with the Hokage to have ANBU stop their 'after-hour talks' with you...so I'll back down, for now," he finished reluctantly, a small frown on his face.

She starts to cry, which freaks him out.

"O-oi! _What?!_ I thought you didn't want to go? And I'm definitely going to come back so - so, ah damn what did I do wrong?" He asks worriedly, not knowing whether to pat Karin's back or pull her into an embrace.

She cures his indecision when she chooses to slap him across the face.

"Y-you fishbrain! You tell me you love me and then you run away!"

He's about to retaliate (I'm not running away!) when she continues, "You better come back!"

There's silence between them for a while save her quiet sniffling, and then, when he fully realises the meaning of her words, he grins stupidly and cups her face with his hands, brushing her tears away with the pads of his thumbs, grinning wider when he feels her cheeks heat up at his touch.

He gazes at her for a while, committing the moment to memory (it's not sappy okay?) before lowering his lips to hers.

When he hears her sharp intake of breath, he decided he can't resist and buries his face back into the crook of her neck, placing one last kiss there before he pulls away.

She blinks and then he's opposite her cell, on the _outside_.

He turns to go and her throat chokes up, she wants to say something but she doesn't know what and now he'll go thinking she couldn't be bothered to say a simple goodbye.

Before he reaches the door, he pauses but he doesn't turn to look at her.

"_Karin,_" he whispered.

Her name leaves his lips in a voice that's kind of raspy, a bit strained, and so full of yearning that she trembles.

Karin gasps, then Suigetsu disappears.

She smiles and cries at the same time, the memory in her head finishing itself now that she has time to think.

**"Why would you do that?" She asks him with equal parts curiosity and surprise.**

**He sets down her hand, and she blushes slightly because he still hasn't let go. She looks at him when she doesn't get an answer.**

**He's staring at the ceiling, his eyebrows furrowed slightly like as if he was trying to solve a problem.**

**"Suigetsu?" She asks softly, worried.**

**He turns to her, eyes bright with that weird look that always made her heart race.**

**"Best friends don't say goodbye, so you're stuck with me!" Suigetsu announces proudly.**

* * *

This is my first Suika fanfic so I'm sorry if the characters are OOC!

Hope you guys liked it!

-DarlingDearestDeadForever


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